Lagny
Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 3 Jul 2011 20:23
Lagny 02.07.2011 48:52:82N 02:42:22E
Awoke late and heard the two Dutch boats leaving, gave them a wave before they disappeared from view. We ourselves left at 10:00hrs saying, “Au revoir” to the New Zealanders (we will meet up with them again in the Paris Arsenal Marina). Stopped briefly by a town quay to pick up diesel from a garage that I spotted and found that there was a huge archery contest taking place on the field right beside the canal. There must have been twenty or so targets (butts?) set up and there were people turning up apparently from all over France to take part. I wish we could have stayed and watched but I think it was not due to start until after lunch. At 12:30hrs having gone through the 300 metre tunnel ( piece of cake to us now) we arrived at a lock just in time for the lock keeper to close it so he could have his lunch. We tried pleading with him to let us through but he took no notice and walked off towards his house. I was going to suggest that his mother never married his father, but I was told to be quiet by my navigator as he might take offence and have a very long lunch, (she was right of course but I was a bit miffed to say the least) So we moored up outside the lock and had our lunch. Exactly one hour later the lock was opened and we passed into it. We were eating cherries as part of our lunch so I was childish enough while we were going down to flick my cherry stones up on to his walkway. He probably never even noticed but it made me feel a bit better. We arrived at the town of Lagny at 14:15hrs and tied up on the town’s quay. There was electricity hook ups provided but they were the old large barrelled type for which we have no adaptor. (it was only for one night so it didn’t matter really). We went for a walk round the town, very nice it is too. The Cathedral has some really beautiful 19th century stained glass windows. While we were in the cathedral a West African wedding party arrived to the sound of tom tom drums beating. Some the girl’s outfits were very strange and some of the men were dressed in shirt sleeves, trilby hats and mirrored sunglasses. At 16:00hrs we got the bikes off the aft deck and went for a ride down the tow path to a field at Dhuys, where a whole lot of weird stone sculptures have been set up along the river bank. They have been carved from stones from an aqueduct that was destroyed by allied bombing in 1941. We took some photographs of some of the more odd ones then rode back to the boat. It was very noisy at the quay, during the evening, with some sort of protest going on across the town bridge and then if that was not enough there seemed to be a rally of Harley Davidson motorcyclists, riding round the town.